The Apple Watch is credited with potentially saving its wearer’s life after 76-year-old man Gaston D’Aquino was recently told to go to hospital after being informed of an unusually high heart rate.
Despite feeling fine, D’Aquino discovered that two of his three coronary arteries were blocked, while the remaining one was only functioning at 10 percent of its usual capacity.
Gaston D’Aquino was at church in Hong Kong when he received the alert, informing him of a sudden spike in his heart rate. “I had read about these cases before, so I knew it was something that was serious,” he said. “It was a strong signal, not ambiguous. It said I had an elevated heart rate.”
When he arrived in the hospital, D’Aquino informed the physician that his Apple Watch had told him to go in. “I told the doctor I don’t know why I’m here, but my watch tells me I have an elevated heart rate,” he told an interviewer. “He says, ‘Are you feeling anything?’ I said no, I feel fine, I’m feeling all right, nothing’s wrong.”
However, when he was subjected to a battery of tests, the extent of his problems were revealed. He has since been treated for them.
“The watch vibrates and I can see the messages,” he continued. “I haven’t taken it off. That’s one of the things that’s good about the watch – it’s on you. It’s monitoring you all the time.”
D’Aquino even got an email from Tim Cook, saying how pleased he was to hear that D’Aquino is recovering, and that stories such as his are the reason why Apple keeps working on applications like this.
Saving lives
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard about the Apple Watch potentially saving a person’s life. Earlier this month, the Apple Watch’s heart rate monitor led 32-year-old New York resident William Monzidelis to visit the hospital, where he was diagnosed with an erupted ulcer.
Before this, 18-year-old Florida teenager Deanna Recktenwald was alerted by her Apple wearable that her resting heart rate had hit 190 beats per minute and that she should seek medical attention. She was later discovered to be suffering from chronic kidney disease.
Source: South China Morning Post
